A Gen Z influencer has abandoned smartphones, ditching the iPhone 11 that was “ruining” her life for a Blackberry Bold.
Nkalipho Shozi went viral after sharing the delivery of her old brick phone.
The 25-year-old admits that she had become “addicted” to scrolling and would spend upwards of nine hours a day using her iPhone on weekdays.
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On weekends, Nkalipho was on it from the moment she woke up until she went to bed, averaging 19 hours of usage.
Her viral TikTok of the package unboxing has over 7.5 million views and over 500,000 likes.
“I was honestly so sick and tired of my phone and how many hours I spent on it endlessly scrolling,” the content creator, who has 47,200 followers, told What’s The Jam.
“My phone was consuming me, and I was addicted to it.
“I missed the days when you would scroll on Instagram, for example, and it would tell you that you’ve caught up on everything – but now it never comes to an end.”
Ironically, Nkalipho was inspired to get a new phone after watching someone on TikTok talk about how much she missed her Blackberry Bold.
She said: “ I thought, ‘Oh my god, I’m going to buy it – I have free will’.
“I have adult money, so let’s do it.
“I did some digging on the Internet, ordered it, and it came within two weeks.”
Nkalipho, who is originally from South Africa but currently based in the Netherlands, where she works as an au pair, first realised she was “wasting” her time when she took her new job.
She said: “I would sometimes find myself scrolling from morning till it’s time for me to get started on work, and I just started feeling so guilty about that.
“I’m in a foreign country for a year with so much to do and see, and I’m just wasting that time scrolling on social media.
“I’m also a content creator, so that too made me even more addicted – but I found that I was still scrolling twice as much as I was creating.
“It’s been so refreshing to [step away from smartphones].
“I found Blackberrys no longer support any apps at all, and that’s when I figured it was perfect because I couldn’t get distracted even if I wanted to.
“I realised I needed to get hobbies to occupy my time, so I bought a word search book and knitting stuff, so I do that when I watch the kids during work hours instead of mindlessly scrolling.
“It’s been freeing.”
Social media users have come out in droves to share their thoughts.
One person said: “I had a BlackBerry Torch and if I could find one rn, I’d put down my iPhone in a heartbeat”.
Another viewer added: “Okay, I’m getting my BlackBerry back!!!”
Zo said, “Praying for a hard Blackberry comeback”.
Another person said: “Oooh, l don’t care what anyone will say, it still looks luxurious”.
Gabbie said: “Back to simpler times lol”.
Although she mostly uses her Blackberry Bold now, Nkalipho admits that she has kept her iPhone to communicate with her family via WhatsApp and enjoy an hour of social media per day.
She’s also found that her brick isn’t “as efficient” as she’d anticipated, as she struggles to get a connection due to being on 3G.
Nkalipho said: “I do think I might return her and look for another ‘dumb’ phone that is 4G compatible.
“Since I’m only looking for my phone to call and text, I need it to do just that seamlessly.
“I did not expect it to go so viral, nor did I expect so many people to feel the way I felt as well, so it did kind of overwhelm me when I got such a huge response on the Internet.
“There the people who are calling this a ‘recession indicator’ or using this as a point of reference to share that history is always repeating itself.
“Overall, I think this has sparked a small movement of people realising how great life used to be before we let smartphones consume our entire lives.
“It’s scary how much we depend on these devices.”
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